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Location: United States

Member Since: May 09, 2012

Thomas Block

Biography

Thomas Block has written a number of aviation-oriented novels, many which have gone on to acquire best-seller status in numerous countries. His novel writing began with the publication of "Mayday" in 1979. That novel was rewritten with novelist Nelson DeMille in 1998 and remains on DeMille's extensive backlist. "Mayday" became a CBS Movie of the Week in October, 2005.

Several of the other novels by Block include "Orbit" (a top bestseller in Germany, among other nations), "Airship Nine", "Forced Landing" (also done as a radio serialization drama in Japan), "Skyfall", "Open Skies" and his latest novel, "Captain". Thomas Block is still writing both fiction and non-fiction, and his novels are available in ebook, print and audio editions.

Block's magazine writing began in 1968 and over the next five decades his work has appeared in numerous publications. He worked 20 years at FLYING Magazine as Contributing Editor, and as Contributing Editor to Plane & Pilot Magazine for 11 years. Block became Editor-at-Large for Piper Flyer Magazine and Cessna Flyer Magazine in 2001. During his long career as an aviation writer he has written on a wide array of subjects that range from involvement with government officials to evaluation reports on most everything that flies.

An airline pilot for US Airways for over 36 years before his retirement in April, 2000, Captain Thomas Block has been a pilot since 1959. Since 2002, he has lived on a ranch in Florida with his wife Sharon where they board, compete and train horses. Complete information is available at http://www.ThomasBlockNovels.com or through the author’s additional website at http://www.FlyingB-Ranch.com. For Facebook users, complete information about Thomas Block Novels can also be found at two interlinked Facebook sites:
http://www.Facebook.com/Captain.by.Thomas.Block
http://www.Facebook.com/ThomasBlockNovels.

Smashwords Interview

Where are you from?

I was born in New York City, grew up on Long Island very near to Kennedy Airport (which was Idlewild back then). I was hired as a copilot for Mohawk Airlines in 1964 and based at LaGuardia/Kennedy until moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1971. After many years there, I eventually moved to Florida.

When and why did you begin writing?

I was a professional pilot for a long time (I finally retired more than a dozen years ago), and a professional writer for almost as long as I flew airplanes. But the writing portion of my professional life hasn’t retired in the least; matter of fact, it’s been cranked up a peg or two in the past few years. That being the case, that means I’ve been a professional writer for over 50 years.

I flew for an airline for 36 years, ending my career crossing the North Atlantic several times a month as I plied my way between the US and various European cities -- just like my characters do in my latest novel, Captain. My professional writing began a few years after my airline flying, first strictly with magazine work but then on to novels as I began helping my childhood friend Nelson DeMille as he began his own bestselling novelist career. Over the years, I have assisted Nelson DeMille with a good many of his novels in one way or another, and you’ll find that fact in most of his novels on the acknowledgement page.

Where to buy in print

Books

Terrorists aboard Flight 42 will force the airliner to land in Communist China where a top-secret computer program will fall into Chinese hands. But the hijacking attempt is bungled and, with many passengers dead or wounded, the airliner's survivors attempt to keep the airliner aloft. Meanwhile, a macabre deal is struck between the Chinese Ambassador and the US State Department as a coverup...

Taking place in a pre-9/11 world of the 80's, a former US submarine is hijacked in the Gulf, a floating aircraft carrier museum is hijacked from its dock in South Carolina, a Learjet and then a DC-9 are hijacked from New York shortly thereafter. A vintage-era big-and-fun caper that involves gold, hostages and a cast of noble and exceptionally nasty characters, 'Forced Landing' has it all!

The death of an airline copilot during a layover in Chicago may have looked like an accident, but there were suspicions that hinted at something else. Jack Sawyer - a private detective who had once been an airline pilot - is then hired to investigate. Along with his estranged wife Susan and a caste of others, Jack sets out to track down a killer and the real reasons behind the murder.

Airship Nine is a tale rich in technological detail and vision, full of action, passion - and the eerie splendors of the Antarctic. An unbridled nuclear war has caused the black clouds of nuclear winter to rapidly spread across the globe. The only hope for survival for Airship Nine - a passenger-and-cargo blimp - and those onboard the Soviet supply ship Primorye lay in the ice fields ahead.

A compelling adventure/thriller about a routine Trans-Atlantic flight that turns absolutely insane. In the doomed airliner's cockpit, inside the passenger cabin and on the ground, a complex array of characters are in a race for survival. 'Captain' is about the individual and collective struggles of each of these men and women as they fight against the odds and circumstances stacked against them.

During a routine flight, an unexplainable engine malfunction hurls the Star Streak hypersonic airliner far too high and into a low-earth orbit. With only limited oxygen onboard, a desperate action is being attempted to save the ship. On the ground, evidence is mounting that the airliner might have been sabotaged. Survival now becomes a race against time and the inescapable laws of physics...